maybe, it is more than a masterpiece. for refined construction of levels of story. for the hard work of a great team. for message. and for memories. for the end. and for the deep poetry of story. a story of love. not ordinary. full of dramatic situations. and convincing. like a parable. or, just like a trip across memories. a film remembering , for me, the Petre Ispirescu fairy tale "Youth everlasting and life without end ". sure, not same end. but the same essence.

I watched this film for the first time today and it was not by chance. I knew of this film as I have seen some other films made using the open source Blender software and I was aware that this film was not only made using that tool but that the whole film is open to be used and changed by anyone who wishes to do so. The irony of this is that currently the film has been removed by YouTube due to a copyright claim by Sony that the film somehow violates their property, a situation that tells me Sony used part of the film (music or otherwise) and are now claiming it as their own, thus entirely missing the point of what this film and others like it are trying to do.Hopefully this will be resolved although it is depressing to see that even the suggestion of infraction from a corporation sees the project removed. Anyway, in terms of the film itself, away from such controversy, the narrative sees a young woman travelling alone deep into the mountain and into danger. An encounter with a bandit leaves her injured but rescued by an old man, to whom she relates the reason for her journey – a journey which begins with her finding an injured baby dragon some time before.The headlines all relate to the technical aspects of this film so it is worth saying that the narrative engages too. It is a solid tale that draws you in but is built on darkness. It is a combination that doesn't totally work and although I applaud the ending for going in the direction it did, it is brutally harsh just to drop that on a viewer. Technically the film is very well made, the animation is great and it is hard to believe that it was made outside of a large studio – not only is this cheering but it actually works and looks great throughout.Sintel represents another step forward in the idea of the creative commons being a positive and collaborative idea and Blender in particular being something about moving forward; however this is not to say that this is where its value comes from because really the short stands up on its own, looking great and having a brutal but memorably brave narrative too. If there was ever a greater example of the need to support such projects, it is the fact that Sony have challenged it for taking their property.

A ginger girl makes her way through a snow mountain pass when she is suddenly attacked by a stranger. She manages to kill him with her spear, but collapses shortly afterward from exhaustion. We see her wake up in a shack where she tells the old man who found her the story of her special connection to a dragon baby she found with an injured wing and managed to heal it. However, when she was about to release it into freedom, it got caught by a fully-grown dragon and abducted. Since then, she was on the lookout traveling places everywhere to find and free her little dragon.This flashback is finished around the seven-minute mark, when half of the film is over. Sintel recovers in the stranger's shack and moves on with her destination shortly afterward. Finally, she enters a cave where she finds the large and the small dragon. But things are not what they appear to be. I quite enjoyed this short film. The animation is very video game-like and the highlight of the film. The story is sweet and sad at the same time. My favorite scene was when she found the baby dragon for the first time and how she got it to trust her until they finally built a strong bond. I'd love to see Lodewijk and Levy reunite one day for a full feature, maybe even starring Sintel. Very much recommended. One of the best animated short films of the 21st century.

This is a beautifully animated and skillfully executed tragic story. It hits all the key points of a classic tragedy in a way worthy of history's greatest playwrights. It has the "hero" who is good and decent but is brought down by her ambition and human frailty. It has the "reversal" when the fortune of finding her companion and overcoming the attacking dragon becomes the realization that the two are the same. This turns into the "recognition" that she has wasted her life on a quest with a flawed premise. At that moment, many things come together. She realizes how much time has passed. She finally understands the true relationship between Scales and herself. Scales moved on long ago, and what was left, what was driving her search, was her own obsession and delusion. She now sees herself for the battle-scarred killer she has become. Her quest has stolen her innocence and now, by her own hand, taken the life of the one she treasured most.The fact that the movie hits all these elements so potently in only 12 minutes is amazing. The more I watch it, the more I appreciate how well everything fits together. The foreshadowing, symbolism, and other elements throughout the movie give it a depth much greater than its length. Things that might not seem significant at first play important roles in the story. For example, Sintel appears to be an orphan, which could be seen as arbitrary back-story. However, this helps explain why she becomes so blinded to reality once Scales is taken. Scales is the only friend she has ever known, and the loss tears her apart.This powerful storytelling is then backed by animation that suits it wonderfully. There are imperfections, but the many things that are done incredibly well far outweigh any flaws. From the sense of wonder in racing up the temple, to the epic scale of Sintel's journey, to the expressions in Scales' face... it all works beautifully to magnify the story. The climax in particular pulls together story, visuals, sound and timing in a way that even the best feature films rarely achieve. I'm tempted to expound on every finely crafted detail, but it is best to just let you watch it and appreciate it yourself.To top everything off, this film is released freely under the Creative Commons license by the Blender Foundation, which also freely releases the open-source 3D modeling tool Blender used to make the movie. This means everything-- the movie, the models, the textures, the software-- EVERYTHING is freely available for anyone to use or change. That's a far cry from most movie releases that want it to be a crime to even rip your own DVD onto your computer/phone/etc.The Blender Foundation creates this and other short films to prove and improve the quality of their free 3D software, but they have done so much more here. This movie is a gift and a masterpiece.